Fire! Weeds!

Fire and invasive species within the temperate and boreal Coniferous forest of western North America
RJ Harrod, S Reichard - Proceedings of the Invasive Species Workshop, 2000 - jfsp.nifc.gov

Ah, fire. The ubiquitous disturbance that northern forests deal with on a regular basis, and one of the few bringers-of-heterogenity which can be relied on to make things interesting, especially where invasive species are concerned. This paper gives a general overview of the ways that weeds exploit fire for spread, through several potential life strategies. Not a bad review. Of interest are some reviews of fire regimes to kill of invasive species (3 years of early fires to kill yellow starthistle, for instance (although they also mention that early fires are thought to kill Canadian thistle, which in my experience is invincible)).

The later parts of the paper lapse into a discussion of potential influences on the fire regime itself by invasives- namely Bromus tectorums increase of the fire cycle (well evidenced) and spotted knapweeds decrease of the fire cycle (is there evidence for that?).

On another note, I think it might be useful to not think of invasive species as "special," since they invade a post-fire environment just like any other species- it's just that they nearly always win the colonization race, and then (potentially) control the site in perpetuity. Perhaps they are playing with a stacked deck, since they might have gotten some enemy-release help, but the mechanics are often the same.